Appropriate Material for Younger Players

[Aristotle]

Good answers here. I concur that a good game for teens would be somewhere between power rangers and star wars (more towards the SW side at that age). Stories in which killing is rarely the answer but ocasionally necessary in a non-gory way, the bad guys are bad, the good guys are good, and the atmosphere at the table is kept light and fun as often as possible.

To those saying "I ran pretty mature stuff at that age". So did I! It doesn't matter. We are talking about an introduction of the game to children by a "responsible adult" in a public setting. The parents of these children may or may not have preconceptions about gaming. It's best to tred lightly, offer the game up in a way that won't deliberately set off over-protective parents, and present the game as 'good clean fun' a kid can have with his/her friends or *gasp* with the family. Let the kids explore the more mature, darker natured, content on their own terms and at their own pace amongst themselves... Like we did.

I think teaching kids to play is a great thing. It expands our hobby and has so much to offer children educationally and creatively. And it gives them something constructive to do in the safety of their own homes rather than on the street. I know gaming saved my life.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Wasn't the GM a 'her'? Anyway I read the thread, yup, it wasn't exactly appropriate for a 1-off public game with strangers. I can slightly sympathise with the creepy GM in that this whole "community service for everyone!" thing sounds horrible, it sounds like they were 'acting out'.

Actually I have no problem with community service, but then I do volunteer work on occassion. In my heart I am still a Boy Scout. And I think that a community center is a great way to bring kids into the hobby.

And yes, sometimes when DMing for young folks one of the duties is reigning them in. At the summer program the fencing instructor once commented that I had an unfair advantage - if they acted up I could kill them! (I gather that the other DMs never killed any PCs, the first time one of them died in my game there was shock and alarm!) I have to admit that I love my summer job! But I have never had the incidents being described occur in my games, in about 30 years of running games. It may just be that I have a more forceful nature than the DM in question, but...

I have run one off games for strangers, and riding herd is something that you learn to do. Come to think of it I was about 17 the first time I ran a game at a community center myself. (Oh gods, that is now more than 17 years ago...) One parent listened in and a few weeks later I was running a game for some of the parents as well. In theory so they could see what the game was about, and maybe run games for their kids, but in reality they were enjoying rolling dice. I heard them trading war stories with their kids later. Now some of the parents are younger than I am...

The Auld Grump, feelin' auld...

 

[S'mon]

Actually I have no problem with community service, but then I do volunteer work on occassion.

Good for you. Voluntary community service is great. Compulsory community service is not great (except for criminals) though, IMO.

Edit: In UK community service is either voluntary or a punishment for minor criminal offences. Encouraging youngsters to do community service is nice, but _requiring_ it sounds highly illiberal to me, and it sounds like that GM certainly thought so.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Good for you. Voluntary community service is great. Compulsory community service is not great (except for criminals) though, IMO.

Edit: In UK community service is either voluntary or a punishment for minor criminal offences. Encouraging youngsters to do community service is nice, but _requiring_ it sounds highly illiberal to me, and it sounds like that GM certainly thought so.

Heh, I am a liberal. I think that people who get into the habit of vonunteer work while young are likely to continue doing so. At least I did. (I started in Boy Scouts.)

In the US community service is occassionaly used in a similar manner for punishment, though locally there was a bit (very small in this case) of a scandal - it turned out that one of the people who was doing community service kept showing up for six months after his required service ended. He felt that it kept him out of trouble...

Sadly most of the community centers locally have gone out of business over the last twenty years or so.

The Auld Grump, sleep typing...

 

[S'mon]

Heh, I am a liberal. I think that people who get into the habit of vonunteer work while young are likely to continue doing so. At least I did. (I started in Boy Scouts.)

I'm a liberal too (by US standards*) - volunteer work is great, compulsory volunteer work doesn't seem right though...

*I was at a seminar by a French academic recently where she said we should abandon the attempt to export liberal democracy to non-western nations, instead 'we' (Europe, presumably) should be encouraging a 'multipolar' world by encouraging non-western powers based on 'traditional culture' (eg Confucianism) in opposition to US "neo-liberal" hegemony... she made me rather angry. I asked her for an example of one of these non-liberal non-western governments she approved of, apparently they exist only in theoretical discourse...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Fellow Boy Scout here as well...except I don't do real community service anymore, at least not the visible kind.

I do, however, still do some pro bono work (I'm an attorney).

Most of the community centers in my area are really set up for physical activities- volleyball, basketball, baseball, ping-pong, and weight-rooms predominating. Some have pools. Few have meeting rooms where one might run a game. Down here in D/FW, RPGs are generally run in 1) someone's house, 2) certain game stores, or rarely 3) certain eateries, like local pizzerias.

Its a shame...the first game I ever participated in (1st lvl human Ftr who didn't quite outlast a Purple Worm in the last room) was in the Library of East Middle School in Aurora, Co. I also ran a games club at my Catholic High School for a couple of years- shut down for lack of interest, not subject matter.

Try either scenario today...

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I'm a liberal too (by US standards*) - volunteer work is great, compulsory volunteer work doesn't seem right though...

*I was at a seminar by a French academic recently where she said we should abandon the attempt to export liberal democracy to non-western nations, instead 'we' (Europe, presumably) should be encouraging a 'multipolar' world by encouraging non-western powers based on 'traditional culture' (eg Confucianism) in opposition to US "neo-liberal" hegemony... she made me rather angry. I asked her for an example of one of these non-liberal non-western governments she approved of, apparently they exist only in theoretical discourse...

As I said, or tried to say anyway, I think of it more as an attempt to build up volunteering as a habit. Of course trying to force good habits is not always a good habit itself... I don't think that the Boy Scouts even try these days...

Ah well, back to the topic - I admit to usig RPGs in a similar fashion, rewarding goodly responsible behavior in the game, in some small hope that the habit will somehow carry over.

Getting the PCs to recognize the bad guy is always a concern, how evil is evil enough? How much is too evil? Where to draw the lines? Grand Moff Tarkin blowing up a planet is an extreme, but nonexplicit example, a nice clean explosion and *POOF!* several million people are dead.

Saying that the PCs find a flayed human skin is one thing, describing the person being skinned and screaming for mercy is quite another. Much like combat, where Bob takes thirty points of damage from the fireball, rather than describing the effects of 2nd and 3rd degree burns over half of Bob's body.

Is the flayed human skin (found neatly folded in a laquered box) more acceptable than the screaming victim? I think so, but is it still too far? And if the skin is used for the cover of a book, the true nature of the material only apparent after careful examination?

The Auld Grump

 

[gizmo33]

Good luck Grump, I don't think there's anything you can write or think that somebody can't find something wrong with from a morality standpoint.

The premise of DnD is that when you don't like what people/creatures are doing, you kill them. That in itself is probably anti-social. Give each of the PCs in your game cell phones and when they reach the first room in the dungeon that has a troll, they call 9-1-1 and have the cops come and take it away.

 

[Dextolen]

I tried to run my two brother-in-laws through a game of D&D when they were 8 and 10. Rudwilla's Stew from an old issue of Dungeon. Simple enough. A fight against a fairy tale style witch. Things were going along fine and just when mom walked in (who was VERY protective of her boys), the youngest one shouts out with bloodthirsty glee "I CHOP THE OLD WITCH'S HEAD OFF!!".

Thus ended their exploration into roleplaying games.

 

[gizmo33]

The DnD cartoon handled the problem of violence by never having anyone actually kill anyone else. I think the magic items were designed to trap or stun opponents. Bad guys tend to give up when you throw them in a mud puddle. You should probably have bad guys make a Will save to keep fighting.

And what was the body count for the last Harry Potter book? Probably something close to zero. Do they even teach the kids how to magic missle stuff? If I were a wizard I'd never send my kids to that school. "Quidditch?! Why aren't they teaching you kids Fireball!? What's this, the 'new magic"?!"